Robert C. Malenka

The paper identifies Tshz1 neurons in the nucleus accumbens as critical for withdrawal aversion by modulating dopamine release and mGluR8 activity, offering a new therapeutic target for opioid use disorder.

The paper shows dopamine and serotonin regulate striatal output pathways through distinct neuronal populations, achieving opponent effects.

This study shows serotonergic neurons promote high-grade glioma growth via 5HT2A receptor activation, with psychedelic drugs enhancing this effect.

This study identifies a mechanism by which serotonin suppresses aggression by modulating nucleus accumbens circuits in mice.

This paper investigates how 5-HT2C receptors in the nucleus accumbens modulate MDMA's rewarding effects and prosocial behaviors through interactions with serotonin and dopamine release.

This study shows psilocybin does not have analgesic effects in acute or chronic mouse pain models across various pain types and doses.

The paper shows that cholinergic modulation of dopamine release enhances effortful behavior by amplifying dopamine responses to high-effort rewards.

This study investigates psilocybin's effects on mouse behavior through a multi-laboratory collaboration, finding robust acute effects but inconsistent persistent effects.

This study shows that integrating inverse dopamine and serotonin signals in the striatum is essential for associative learning.

This study maps the brain-wide network activated by NAc DBS in mice and finds similar connectivity patterns in humans, suggesting conserved mechanisms across species.

The paper shows that myelin plasticity in the ventral tegmental area, regulated by dopaminergic activity, is essential for opioid reward and dopamine release dynamics.

The paper identifies opioid receptor-expressing neurons in the central amygdala as mediators of ketamine's behavioral effects in mice, showing they are not direct targets of ketamine.

This study shows that dysfunction in the dorsal intercalated nuclei of the amygdala (ITCd) in Sapap3-null mice leads to impaired extinction of avoidant behavior, which can be rescued by optogenetic inhibition of ITCd.

This study shows that striatal dopamine release encodes cost, benefit, and motivation during operant tasks, with motivation inversely correlated with reward-evoked dopamine.

This study examines how psilocybin and environment affect brain-wide immediate early gene expression in mice using c-Fos immunofluorescence and light sheet microscopy.

This study shows that CCK released from somatodendritic regions of VTA dopamine neurons enhances GABAergic synapses and influences food consumption behaviors.

The paper introduces FLiCRE, a molecular tool for tagging calcium-activated cells, and uses it to identify and manipulate a striatal cell-type involved in aversion behavior.

This study identifies distinct neural mechanisms for MDMA's prosocial effects and rewarding properties in mice, showing serotonin transporter and dopaminergic signaling play separate roles.

The paper creates a cell type atlas of the adult murine striatum using single-cell RNA-seq and identifies discrete and continuous cell identities within spiny projection neurons.